Monday, June 12, 2023

Catching Up! - Anastasia National Park, Florida 2022

And, another catchup post...

We camped at Anastasia National Park again for a relaxing March break with family in 2022.  Very soon, a Red-tailed Hawk was in the trees around the camp sites. It was catching lizards and geckos running the tree branch moss.

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

One early morning birding run was pretty successful with some lifers.

male Eastern Towhee (lifer)

female Eastern Towhee (lifer)

Northern Mockingbird

Great Egret

Great Egrets roosting

Anhinga

Anhinga sunning

Eastern Phoebe

Brown Pelican

Great Egret


Great Egret

The Northern Cardinal is not strange to us up north, but their colours seem more vibrant here somehow.

male Northern Cardinal

female Northern Cardinal

Carolina Wren pair

Grey Catbird

A wood stork was along the roadside. It had a fish hook stuck in the fleshy part of it's bill. A couple of us flagged down the park rangers, but they didn't seem too concerned - apparently it's been doing fine with it as it is.

Wood Stork

Wood Stork

Wood Stork

Red-tailed Hawk

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

White Ibis

juvenile White Ibis

Brown Pelican

Bottlenose Dolphin

Brown Pelican and Bottlenose Dolphin

Brown Pelican waiting to grab injured fish
from Bottlenose Dolphin

Bottlenose Dolphin

Gopher Tortise

And... Finally!  After many times attempting to even get a camera aimed on an osprey diving, I finally at least got a picture of some of the sequence. Although the impact shot would be great, this was part of it and got captured.

Osprey

Osprey
Osprey with fish

Osprey with fish

So, this was a pretty exciting scene to see, and get a few distant pictures of. These are cropped shots. An Osprey did the work of finding and catching a fish, but a much bigger Bald Eagle took opportunity to chase and force it to drop the fish. The Eagle caught it in mid air and flew off the victor.

Bald Eagle chasing Osprey with fish

Bald Eagle and Osprey

Bald Eagle and Osprey

Bald Eagle with captured fish


Wilson's Plover (lifer)

Great Egrets

pair of Black-crowned Night-Heron

Palm Warbler (lifer)

Ground Dove (lifer)

Black Skimmer (lifer)

A great vacation with lots of time to enjoy His handiwork.